My great Arventure

GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!

That's pretty much been the theme of Nice (where we are right now). You see the French apparently like to strike a lot. So it is no coincidence that when we arrive in Nice the ticket sales people for the French National Rail are on strike/work-to-rule mode.

Poor Ankur has spent more time at the train station trying to get a ticket to Paris than walking around Nice (which is lovely I must say). Oh I miss the Deutsche Bahn.

We've come up with little monikers for each National Rail service based on the quality of service:

Deutsche Bahn - You'll arrive before you leave.
Italia Bahn (aka TrenItalia) - What's the hurry??
French Bahn (aka SNCF) - You're lucky if you get there!!!

Hahaha. Now onto the stuff you really want... photos. (Ahem, Sarah Sy :P) But first let me update you on where 'ourventure' has taken us.

When we left off we were about to enter Italia. What a wonderful country!!! I love the food, I love the atmosphere... and I definately love the women ;) From overly crowded and touristy Rome to peaceful Cinque Terra to colourful Florence, Italy certainly captured my heart like none other. It was probably the amazing tiramisu!!!

All right so onto photos!!!


This is the size of the couchettes on the overnight trains.


Hello Ankur!!!


Prague


Bird's eye of Prague


Rohit trying to get rid of Ankur

Ok the next photo deserves a story. So we went to the Hofburg Palace museum in Vienna. The first section was seriously a walk through Ikea. It was a freakin' dish museum!!! Well at least the "royal family dish collection" This was the the most exciting for me.


Why you ask. Because I swear I've eaten pranthas on those exact same plates.


Rally for the local soccer team in Vienna. The three of us went in screaming "Gandhi Ji, zindha-badh!!!!"

After Vienna was Munich. There's only one thing you do in Munich really. DRINK BEER!!! And boy do they drink beer in Munich... by the litre :P


Ankur's happy with his TWO LITRES!!!


Beer-stache


Gorgeous view of the Bavarian Alps. The above view was taken from the following castle


Neuschwanstein castle


The beginning of the leaping series. Me leaping in front of the alps


Funky GQ mirror shot in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. Basically Germany's largest Science and Technology Museum. A VERY cool place!!!


Rohit leaping in the Deustches Museum.


Aasthaa I'm sorry to tell you but Rohit got jiggy with the locals in Munich.

After Munich was Florence. The hostel we stayed at in Florence was amazing!!! It was more like a home than a hostel. Clara did an amazing job of taking care of us. Ciao Bella!! Clara if you are reading this, grazie :)


Good friends that we made in Florence: Michelle (pink) and Arlene (black). They are actually sisters!!! Thx for the company M&A :)

If you take only one photo in Florence this would be it.


Michelangelo's David. Words can't describe how impressive this bad boy was.


Bird's eye of Florence.


Part of Last Judgement in Duomo.


Ankur leaping on top of Duomo.


Me practicing my photography skills. The wine in Italy was pretty good. Best story was when we randomly were walking around Florence and wandered into a local wine shop where the owner let us try 5 or 6 diff't wines. She had a wine tap!!!

After Florence was Rome where we met up with...


Hello Anja, Karam and Aliya :)


Portrait of a Brown Man in front of Colloseum.


Trevi Fountain.


Can you guess who the three are?


The Colloseum... AT NIGHT!!!


Piazza di San Pietro in Stato della Città del Vaticano. St. Peter's Square in Vatican city for those of you that don't speak Italian ;)


Inside Basilica di San Pietro. Inside St. Peter's Basilica.


School of Athens by Raffaello.


My best shot from Sistine Chapel. It was quite a mission to get these shots. But I used my cunning and guile charm to snap a few ;)


The Roman Forum


Pantheon. Bit of a let down if you ask me.

Next round of photos will be from Cinque Terra onwards. Tonight Rohit and I take off for Barcelona!!! But we also say goodbye to Ankur :( Ciao!!!

posted by Arvind @ 6:38 AM